Basketball On The Internet.

THERE was no shortage of scratch-your-head moments last night as Sydney saw off an undisciplined Cairns 101-82, Denzel Valentine with an NBL career-best 29-point haul in 23 minutes, Kings coach Mahmoud Abdelfattah running with some weird combinations and substitution decisions. 

Relegated again to the bench, Valentine had a day out when he hit the hardwood, his points tally coming at 67 per cent (12-of-18) and including five 3-pointers, alongside eight rebounds, two assists and two steals.

But the next question for Abdelfattah will be was it benching his NBA import the catalyst for his performance or was it Valentine's way of proving he should be starting?

Abdelfattah started Shaun Bruce beside established playmaker Jaylen Adams, and also Jaylin Galloway, leaving Alex Toohey now also among the Kings players potentially wondering where he fits, exactly.

Galloway left the court at 8:51 - that's 69 seconds after the opening tip - already with two fouls. Anxious maybe? Trying too hard? Over-reacting? Who knows?

Next case in point - Angus Glover. Glover plays six minutes of the first quarter, sticks two threes, gets in Pat Miller's face at the first break - you know, he's doing Angus Glover things.

He sat for a very long time after that, finally playing a grand total of 9:47.

Abdelfattah had 11 players into this one, even someone named Sam Timmins. Pretty sure Cairns coach Adam Forde didn't have the scout on him.

There was a time it seemed former Kings coach Chase Buford suffered from the "must sub every few minutes" blues ... but he looks like he positively sat on his hands compared to this.

Even Justin Schueller must have been thinking "whoa"!

Kouat Noi, there's another part-time starter - he played 11:44 and grabbed six boards in that time.

The erratic nature of Sydney's rotations and its astonishingly confused zone defence speaks to this team's inconsistent form. Bruce is a key off-the-bench asset and knows his role. He's an important piece, but he's not a starter on a championship team.

It was mostly superior talent that overwhelmed a Taipans team which went away from what was working in the first quarter - Bul Kuol hitting 11 points for example - and fell in love with the 3-pointer for extended periods.

The Taipans shot 30 of their 68 field goal attempts from the land of lazy. They hit nine, Sydney crashing the boards to the tune of a whopping 62-42 advantage.

Their offence falling into the realms of undisciplined poop, Cairns watched as Sydney pulled 11 clear ahead of halftime and what was going to happen after the break seemed obvious.

A frustrated Sam Waardenburg fouled out with two points to his name in less than half a game and he had good reason to feel hard done by.

Ultimately though, Tahjere McCall and Miller were either doing too much or trying to, and it rarely helped Cairns find the gear it needed to compete successfully.

SYDNEY KINGS 101 (Valentine 29, Adams 15, Hogg 14, Hunter 13; Hunter 16 rebs; Hogg 5 assts) d CAIRNS TAIPANS 82 (Miller 18, McCall 17, Kuol 15, Mennenga 12; Waardenburg 8 rebs; McCall, Miller 6 assts) at Qudos Bank Arena. Crowd: 12,783